Herd Night
by Smiles1200
Summary: Set after Ice Age 4. The herd celebrates their newest members in a warm cozy cave. Join in as they tell each other stories before joining the herd we know and love. :)
1. Campfire

**Campfire**

As we all know our favorite herd has a new member. Well technically two. Shira and Granny. You may not know this but every time the herd gets a new member, they always tell stories of how their life used to be before joining the herd. It was all Ellie's idea once she joined in. It's now a herd tradition.

They all settled in inside a cozy cave they call home on the new island. Diego grew very fond of Shira- of course- but they were all still coping with Granny. Being the cranky old sloth she is with her walking stick and sharp teeth she calls "dentures". Once Sid-AKA, Lord of the Flames- finally got the fire started, it was time for story time.

"So Shira, welcome to our herd!" Ellie welcomingly said.

"Thanks. You know being a pirate my whole life wasn't all that easy." Shira told them.

"How can it not be? I would love to be one!" Sid exclaimed with Peaches, Crash and Eddie nodding their head in agreement.

"Well first of all you have to obey your captain no matter what. Second, you got to do a lot of tough work. And third, you have to have a tough attitude if you want to get along with your crew." Shira explained.

"No wonder you didn't welcome us with open arms." Diego sarcastically said to Shira.

"Obviously not," Shira smirked at him, "To us, you guys were our enemies."

"So, tell us then." Manny said.

"Tell you what?" Shira asked," My life as a pirate?"

Everyone nodded and waited for Shira to tell the tale of life of a pirate.

"All right," Shira agreed," I'll tell you the time before my crew found you guys on that iceberg "boat". It was on the same day and we all had a bad morning…"

 **This is my first fanfic I have ever wrote so I understand if you don't love it. BUT… thanks for reading it at least!**

 **Please review!**


	2. Cranky Pirates

**Cranky Pirates**

 _"So like I said we all had a bad morning . The other night, Flynn went overboard right before bed and we had to use up all of our strength to pull him up with a vine."_

 _"How did he go overboard?" Peaches asked._

 _"Well he always stays to close to the edge of the ship," Shira explained," Usually it's because his favorite fish is down in the water and he wants to get a bite."_

 _"Well the next morning we all decided not to talk to him..."_

* * *

"Stupid sea lion," Squint muttered as he was chatting with Shira, Raz, and Silas," Why we gotta save his fat blubber last night anyway? We could've just left him in the water and went to bed!"

"Squint, you know we have to have him in our crew," Shira told him," What if our ship sinks and we're stuck on a raft of ice? **(Hint,Hint!)** None of us can swim so Flynn is gonna have to swim us to shore."

"Yea we'll just use him for emergencies," Raz said," Though no one tell him I said that. He probably already thinks he's a liability."

"Well he is!" Squint shouted in a hush whisper.

Just as Silas was about to say something, Gutt called for his name in front of the boat to check something out in the distance.

"Well it's still good to keep him handy, just in case y'know?" Shira felt kind of bad for Flynn.

"Hmp, maybe your just going soft, saber." Squint stormed out. Shira let out a soft growl.

"Let's just hope this day'll go right." Raz said.

"Whatever, I'm gonna get something to eat." Shira, as well, stormed out.

Shira went to the food pile- which was all of the food the pirates have gathered when ever they made a stop at Switchback Cove- and looked for the her favorite fish, salmon. It was specifically for her mostly, since y'know, she doesn't eat fruit. _Hmm,_ Shira wondered, _Where's the salmon?_

Just then as she scented the salmon scent near her, Flynn came to her and said," Oh, good morning Shira! Hope you don't mind but I felt a bit hungry for more and ate the last piece of salmon. Mmmm, no wonder it's your favorite." And with that he waddled away.

"Oh don't worry, I wasn't even hungry." Shira muttered followed by a soft growl. Shira was starting to agree with Squint for once.

 _Great, now what am I suppose to eat,_ Shira thinks, _Can this day get any worse?!_

"All paws on deck!" Everyone herd the captain," Looks like we're going to have some new recruits lads!"

As everyone shouted a great big, _ARRGH,_ followed by laughter, Shira wondered,

 _Hmp, maybe this will be a good day._

* * *

 _"_ And it really was." Shira finished.

"Wow. Seems like that Flynn dude was a pain in the neck!" Peaches exclaimed.

"Yea! I would hate it if someone in our herd was like that!" Sid agreed.

Everyone stared at the sloth as he was clueless to see why they were doing this.

"Well he really was at most times " Shira said.

"Well Sid, do you have any stories in the past about Granny?" Ellie asked the sloth who was sitting on a rock next to a sleeping Granny.

"Oh there's so much to choose from! Hmmm.." Sid wondered. " Oh, I got one!" Everyone was ready for the next story of Herd Night.

"This is the time when we all thought Granny finally went nuts..." Sid started.

* * *

 **I know there wasn't much action here but I just wanted to write about what happened before Shira and the pirates found Manny, Diego, Sid, and Granny. But I still had fun writing this! I hope you enjoyed reading! And yes, there will be a Granny chapter!**

 **Please Review! :)**


	3. Precious?

**Precious?**

 _"What do you mean finally?" Diego asked._

 _"Well you all remember Granny's pet whale, Precious?" Sid asked the herd. Everyone nodded their heads in agreement._

 _"Well... it was morning and we woke up to Granny's screaming. It was only three days before our first migration as a family..." Sid started the story._

* * *

"PRECIOUS! PRECIOUS!" Granny shouted as she woke up the whole sloth family up from the tree.

" _Mom!_ What's Granny doing?" Sid asked his mother from below his branch.

"I don't know," His mother answered honestly but puzzled," She's never done this before."

"PRECIOUS! COME HERE SWEETIE!" As Granny continued to shout 'Precious', Sid's father came up to her and asked," Uh, Gr-Granny? Who's Precious?"

"Ya'll don't know? She's my pet!" Granny replied to the sloth family," She is such a sweet little angel. Just met her beside the big river behind our home."

" Uh oh," Sid's mother said," Milton, I'm afraid Granny has finally gone.. You know.." She whispered to her husband.

" What!? No she's not going crazy, she's just...um.." He tried to find an answer of why Granny was shouting out Precious and couldn't think of anything. They didn't even have a river behind their home!

" Uhh, Mom, Dad? Where's Granny?" Marshall asked both his parents as he climbed down from the tree.

"What do you mean? She's right... uh oh." The sloth family was surprised to see Granny gone.

* * *

The sloth family decided to split up and search for Granny in different locations. Sid had to search for her alone.

"GRANNY! GRANNY, WHERE ARE YOU!?" Sid desperately wanted to find Granny so that his family can appreciate him for once and find him useful.

 _I can't believe Marshall wanted to pair up with Uncle Fungus rather than with me,_ Sid thought in his head. He stopped thinking about his family and focused on finding Granny. He was far from his home and near a river that Granny must have mentioned before after shouting "Precious"

"Hmm, well it's not near our home." Sid muttered to himself.

Suddenly, he heard an echo that sounded like.. snoring?

He came upon a tree with a hollow opening and looked inside and saw purple fur.

"Granny! There you are!" Sid exclaimed as he started to wake Granny up.

"Huh? Who's there?" Granny peeked out the opening to see her grandson starring at her with a great smile.

"Granny, what are you doing in there?" Sid asked his grandmother. She never slept inside trees. This is a first.

"I'm just waiting for Precious! It's her feeding time!" Granny answered him and sounded a bit crazy.

"Granny we have to go back home. We'll uhh... you can come back later to feed...Precious." Sid would do anything, even lie a little, just so he can return Granny to his family.

"Hmm, alright fine. I've been trying to call her all morning, but I got tired so I took a nap right in this tree." Granny agreed with her grandson and went back home.

* * *

"After that nothing really happened. We all just went back to sleep since it was really early in the morning. No one even praised me for finding Granny. But every day before the migration, Granny would always wander off and we'd have to find her. I was the one who mostly found Granny all those days." Sid finished the story to the herd.

"Aww Sid, I bet they were very grateful for you finding Granny." Ellie reassured him.

"Oh yea? Then how come all those migration days I find myself abandoned by my very own family?" Everyone can tell that Sid has been hurt plenty times by his own family. The herd tried to cheer him up and as for Herd Night, they didn't want it to be a fail, especially for the new members.

"Oh c'mon Uncle Sid," Peaches tried to reassure her uncle," Sure your related to your family, but we're a herd! We're your **_real_** family!"

"She's right Sid," Diego continued on Peaches comment," Your family might have abandoned you all those days, but we would never do that to you."

"Cause we're a herd," Manny said," And a family."

"Plus, you still have Granny." Ellie pointed to Granny next to Sid as she was snoring quietly than Sid can.

"You guys are right! Thanks. I'm glad I have you all." Sid felt the love coming from the herd.

"Wow. You all appreciate and love each other, huh. Back when I was on Gutt's ship, there was only cruelty and madness." Shira told the herd. "I'm glad to be here too."

Herd Night has been great. But the night was still young and they all wanted to hear more stories about each other. Especially Shira, she wanted to learn more about her fellow herd members.

"All right well, who's next?" Ellie asked the herd.

"How about you mom? Any stories about you thinking you were a possum?" Peaches tried to hide a giggle.

" Yeah, I would like to find out how did you cope with how you didn't realize you weren't a mammoth." Shira had just recently knew about Ellie and Peaches being half-possum and she tried to understand how they knew how to swing from tree to tree and sleep just like a possum. Also, how Crash and Eddie became Ellie's "brother's".

"Alright, I'll tell you the time when I was trying to hang by my tail and Crash and Eddie were making fun of me for trying..." She started the story while eyeing her two brothers.

* * *

 **I thought that I shouldn't just end this story with only three chapters from only _TWO_ members of the herd. Wasn't the end mushy and sweet?! I know right.. I wanted Sid to feel good about himself. So I was thinking, after Ellie's chapter, should I end this story or write about another member of the herd? Cause I don't have any ideas for everyone else. Pease tell me if you would like to find out about someone else's past. Thank you!**

 **Please Review! :)**


	4. Possum Practice

**Possum** **Practice**

 _"Hey, it's not our fault you were bad at being a possum! You were a mammoth all this time and you didn't even know it!" Eddie told his sister._

 _"Well neither did you guys! So anyway, it was 4 weeks in since my possum mother adopted me..." Ellie started the story._

* * *

"OWW! Can't you guys help me?" a young Ellie asked her two possum brothers who were up in a tree. Ellie's "mother" had just gone off to do errands and while she was gone, Ellie wanted to show her that she can hang by her tail without anyone teaching her. So far, this is the 12th time she has fallen to the ground.

"I thought you said you wanted to do this all by yourself without anyone teaching you?" A tiny Crash said above a tree, hanging next his brother by their tails.

"Well I just wanted to impress Mom. All you guys need to do is teach me! I keep falling on my butt! It hurts! How do you guys do it?" Ellie asked her brothers.

"Well it was easy for us. At least we're small! You're like...um.." little Eddie didn't want to offend his sister by looking different from other possums.

" You just need practice. That branch is too thin. That's why you keep falling. We just need to find you a short tree with a big branch." Crash explained to Ellie.

"Where do we look?" Ellie asked. The possums tried to think where they can find a tree so that their sister can practice.

"How about deep into the woods? I heard that there's loads of small trees and I bet their good for practice!" Eddie told them both.

"But mom said not to go there! What if we get lost?" Crash exclaimed.

"Hey I just want to practice tree climbing and hanging by my tail. If we're going to get lost in the woods, I'm going to take that chance." Ellie was determined to become a true possum. Even if they get lost.

"Hm. Alright then. Let's go!" All of them prepared for the journey, and for three little kids, it's really going to be a journey for them. The good news is that they're going in the woods in the daytime. Could you believe how scared they would be is they went at night?! Then again, they are possums. But Ellie isn't.

* * *

"WHOOO!" Ellie shouted from tree to tree. She has learned to hang by her tail. But now she can swing from tree to tree! And she only fell on her bottom 21 times while swinging!

"Wow, nice job Ellie!" Crash praised his sister.

"Yea, wait till mom sees this!" Eddie said.

"Wait till mom sees what?!" A voice crept from behind them. It was their _MOTHER!_ All of them gave out a shriek. Nothing scares kids more than their own mom busting them on something they weren't suppose to do. Especially if your a possum.

"Oh, hey mom," Eddie said to his mother as sweetly and innocently as possible. "We have good news by the way! Tell her Ellie!"

"Uhhh..We..I mean..I..learned how to hang by my tail. And I know how to swing from tree to tree!" Ellie tried to change the fact that they disobeyed their mother. Surprisingly, it worked.

"Really! Can you show me?" Their mother seemed to have calmed down and all her anger has washed away. She really was proud of her daughter. Most possums even have to wait a certain age just so that they can learn how to hang upside down by their tails! But Ellie isn't like most possums.

* * *

After they all had a presentation by Ellie's tree swinging and tail hanging, they all went home. But there was one question that was still in all of their heads.

"Hey, mom? How did you know where we were?" Crash asked his mother who was beside her.

"Well, mother's know everything. Plus, you left tracks. And, I could hear Ellie's shouting all the way home." their mother explained.

" _Ooohhhh_ " the three of them said.

* * *

"And that was the first, and last time, we all went somewhere where we weren't suppose to. Well, I learned that lesson." Ellie said while looking at her two brothers.

"Yep. It was really creepy how mom knew everything about what we did." Crash said.

"Yea, creepy" Eddie agreed.

"Well I don't know about you guys, but I would love to hear about how this herd started out as. Who were the first members?" Shira wanted to know.

"It was me, Diego, and Manny!" Sid explained to the tigress who was lying next to Diego.

"Oh we were just the best pals." Diego said sarcastically.

"Yea that's another long story. But I would much rather like it if we told you about after we all got together" Manny said.

"I would love to hear that story too, Dad" Peaches really wanted to hear the story about the three original herd members.

"Well we were all heading South for the migration. And as usual, Sid was yapping on and on about who knows what..." Manny started the story.

* * *

 **I think after Manny, Diego, and Sid's story, I'm going to end it there. I know I haven't really been updating recently. Only because I have no ideas at all! Sometimes, I just wing it. But I hope you like this chapter! I really need some ideas for Manny, Diego and Sid's story. Please let me know what you would like to read for their story! Thank You!**

 **Please Review! :)**


	5. Welcome To Our Herd

**Welcome To Our Herd**

 _" I thought you guys were listening! Well all I was talking about was global warming. And look what happened, a huge flood almost killed us all!" Sid explained._

 _" Uhh... what?" Shira had no idea what he was saying. Peaches, Crash and Eddie didn't know either._

 _" Never mind that. Just tell the story." Diego said._

 _" Well, as I was saying, we all continued South but decided to rest inside a cave for the night..." Manny started the story._

* * *

" Oh, and then if we don't stop global warming, then we might all die from a flood!" Sid as he started the fire in the center of the cave.

" Before I met you guys, was he this talkative?" Diego whispered to Manny.

" Consider yourself lucky that you didn't have to put up with him like I did." Manny replied. Sid was oblivious to the two mammals and continued to talk.

" I mean who knows, maybe there _will_ be a flood in the future and we might drown! Boy, wouldn't that be scary." Sid said.

" Are you done?" Diego asked the sloth. Sid sat down and nodded to the orange saber and asked him a question that has been on his mind since Diego first reunited with them.

" Hey Diego, how did you know where to find us? And how did you recover from that injury so fast? We both thought that you were.. well you know.." Sid didn't want to say it.

" Well like I said before you tackled me and hugged me, I said I had nine lives. I guess I'm down to eight." The saber explained." And I just followed the mammoth and sloth footprints in the snow, and it lead me to you guys."

" Well that must've been a difficult journey. You know, with your injury. How are you coping anyway?" Manny asked Diego.

" Ah, don't worry about me. I'll live. Saber's usually recover quickly." Diego reassured the two of them.

" Well maybe just in case, we should get some sleep. You need the rest. We all do." Manny said as Sid let out a huge yawn.

The sloth didn't have to be asked twice. He collapsed into a heave of sleep. He started to snore very loudly and his snores echoed throughout the cave. That only left Diego and Manny awake. Manny was immune to Sid's loud snoring, but Diego wasn't. He tried not to show his pain in his ears.

" Are you sure your okay?" Manny was still worrying about the saber with the injury.

" Don't worry. I'm okay. And sorry for setting you guys up on that ambush." Diego apologized.

" Hey, forgive and forget right?" Manny joked.

" And thanks for still letting me travel with you guys and for saving me out of that miserable pack life. I owe you big time." Diego really meant that. He would do anything to repay him that debt. **(Guess how he repaid that debt!)**

"Your welcome. Well, I'm going to sleep. Goodnight." Manny started to fall asleep.

" Goodnight" Diego said. He also started to fall asleep. He was thankful for both Manny and Sid and for what lies ahead of him in the future. They were all really lucky to have each other.

* * *

" And in the end, we really were the best pals." Diego finished the story.

" Aww. That was sweet." Ellie smiled.

" Wow, these were some nice stories. I'm glad that I got to know you guys." Shira said.

" Well, I don't know about you guys but I'm gonna hit the hay. Goodnight." Sid, again, collapsed into a heave of sleep.

Ellie, Peaches, Crash and Eddie hanged upside down on their tree and said goodnight. Below, is where Manny slept. Sid was sleeping soundly up on his rock next to Granny. And Diego and Shira layed down and fell asleep. But during the night, Diego moved right beside Shira, putting an arm across her from behind, and both had a smile on their faces.

And that concludes Herd Night. All of the members of the herd know knew a bit about their family.

* * *

 **I am sorry for not updating. It's just that I had no good ideas for this chapter. That's why this chapter was short. But just for fun, can you guess how Diego repaid Manny's debt? Thank you for reading!**

 **Please Review! :)**

 **And have a Merry TurkeyDay! :)**


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